Now, as you will see from the twitter conversation itself, their pearls of wisdom gave us a lot to think about. I also think the exercise demonstrated brilliantly the power of social media for making connections on journalism.

Prior to the morning of the presentation, our group had been trying to organise a bunch of people to converse via Twitter at a set time. Becs had success with Katy, who agreed to join us. But the people I had in mind to involve were proving much harder to pin down. So, what did we do? We twitter monitored!

By watching the live twitter feed, we are able to see which of the people we were following were online at the same time we were. Now, perhaps this was a double stroke of luck (I’m happy at this point in time to attribute it to the power of social media), but monitoring through the morning saw a variety of journalists were online – and in my personal opinion (and rather jammily (I don’t think that’s a word, but I’m going to go with it)), some of the best people to talk about social media.

After a quick @mention, Rory, Adam, Jonathan and Katy were kind enough to respond and agree to join in our conversation.

Now, I really didn’t expect this to happen. I thought I’d give it a go and get no response. ut no, social media strikes again and allowed us to get in contact with people I’m unlikely to ever meet face to face.

Do you think I would have got the same response if I’d emailed them? Or given them a call (if somehow I was able to find their numbers…)? I don’t think I would have.

Social Media is breaking down all sorts of boundaries and opening up the world of communication to all who are willing to use it. Imagine the contacts database you could try to build? It would take some work and willingness, but what a tool.

Social media is the other name of building relationship and develop conversation among individuals and groups.

The generational trend gap is evident when it comes to seeking out romantic connections. The younger generations favour social networking sites like Face book and MySpace, with older singles more commonly opting for tailored dating websites. Older singles are also far more likely to subscribe to dating websites, whereas younger generations favour free sites.
Social Network Sites like Face book are popular with younger folks.

Privacy settings and private messaging enable amorous couples to go about their courtship as publicly or furtively as they like, with the arguable advantage of there being no set protocol or expectation. However, these sites are designed for social networking rather than dating.
Older singles often become frustrated with the lack of focus created by social networking websites. These may well be the online domain of teenage loves, crushes, broken hearts and reputations, but to a single looking for a meaningful connection with a likeminded person, the pools of the likes of Face book can seem troublesome and daunting. Teens on the other hand often thrive on this element of online drama and varied interaction.

Accessibility to internet has brought about radical changes in terms of information and communication. Due to these changes now it is so easy to get online.

Social networking sites like Twitter, Face Book, LinkedIn, foursquare, MySpace etc bring more and more people online, especially the youngsters. Twitter in particular is used by journalists as an outlet to release breaking news because it is not only instant but can also effectively reach to a huge number of audiences.

The development of mobile phones having access to internet has also contributed a lot to have up-to-date information, news or progress of events worldwide.

Social media in general is a positive development, especially for freelance journalists as it gives a huge range of possibilities in terms of getting work! It is very tough to step into this industry and when the only media outlets that existed were print publications, there were limited opportunities for young journalists. However, the emergence of online media has created more prospects for writers and journalists both.

Besides many advantages of social media its ethical aspect especially in context of journalism is very important.

The dangerous thing about it is somewhat lack of control. As there could be anyone create a website or a blog etc so there are a number of ethical issues that are raised, especially since the technological advances move at such a fast pace. Defamation is a huge ethical issue in online journalism. As anybody can write their opinions online and people have so much freedom to express, comment or respond instantly on the internet so it is easy to commit libel. For example, writing a defamatory statement about any individual or organization could be considered libel. However, the problem with the online journalism is where to draw a line?

Despite many advantages of social media in terms of the ability to reach out to a mass audience, the immense freedom people have online can also cause more damage than intended.

It is a matter of common experience that many passionate users of social networking sites including Face Book, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn etc are easy target of internet scams.

Recent reports from Antivirus firms have indicated that cyber crime is increasing day by day. These social networking sites are easily being targeted. Messages are frequently sent supposedly from friends of the user, and entirely based on trust; the user if not informed on the dangers, will open them up. Consequences to this may include personal data being used for different unwanted purposes.

Most of the users are expected to be well aware of the fact however, there still may be many others who are unaware and thus they are the easy targets of internet scams.

As it was reported from the Economic Times, email services’ anti-spam security measures are much higher of social networking sites, which lead to the criminal fraternity venturing into these waters.

In a statement from Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos “Graham Cluley,” has said, “People have grown wise to email spam. They recognise all the warning signs now. But a lot more people are tricked by spam messages sent by their ‘friends’ on sites like Face Book as they have a position of trust.” He then went on to finish with what can happen if personal information is accessed.

It is high time for users to be educated how to use these networking sites safely. In the mean time, social networking sites should also take effective measures to protect the users from the tactics of internet scams.